I hate to be the one to bring you bad news \u2013 but according to the Dharma \u015a\u0101stras a Vedic Hindu priest should not perform any ceremonies for \u015b\u016bdras.<\/p>\n
A term of great insult is to call a Vedic priest a \u015b\u016bdray\u0101jaka!<\/p>\n
\ntyajet pitaram \u015b\u016bdra-y\u0101jakam \u015b\u016bdr\u0101rtha-y\u0101jakam (Gautama 20:1)<\/p>\n
One should abandon a father who sacrifices for a sudra or uses a sudra\u2019s money for a sacrifice.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nGautama was particularly severe in this regard !!<\/p>\n
Vy\u0101sa was more progressive;\u2013<\/p>\n
\n\u015b\u016bdro var\u1e47a\u015bcaturtho\u2019pi var\u1e47atv\u0101d dharmam arhati | veda mantra svadh\u0101 sv\u0101h\u0101 va\u1e63a\u1e6dk\u0101r\u0101dibhir vin\u0101 ||<\/p>\n
The fourth order is the sudra, hence because they are caste-hindus and are entitled to practice all religious rites. But they are not permitted to recite any Vedic mantras nor utter svaha, svadha or va\u1e63a\u1e6d. (Vy\u0101sa Sm\u1e5bti 1:6)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nSo in South India there are dozens of \u015b\u016bdra castes who never use or even invite Brahmin priests to officiate or grace their wedding ceremonies. Their ceremonies are conducted by elders within the community.<\/p>\n
Now the really bad news is that the majority of today\u2019s Hindus are \u015b\u016bdras, even those born in Brahmin families. The only ones entitled to be called \u201cBrahmins\u201d are those who have been initiated (upan\u012bta), who study the Vedas and perform Sandhya-vandana and nitya-karma.<\/p>\n
So strictly speaking Vedic Hindu priests should not be performing non-Brahmin marriages period! (And the real ones in fact don\u2019t!)<\/p>\n
Now us \u015b\u016bdra priests perform marriages for everyone regardless of caste, creed, race, gender as long as they can pay us \ud83d\ude42 (even for brahmins!)<\/p>\n
The marriage ceremony is the solemnising of a personal contract between two individuals who love each other and wish to live a Dharmic life – usually but not necessary in front of the sacred fire.<\/p>\n
How is this performing justifiable?<\/p>\n
For certain astrological remedies young girls are married to banana trees and boys are married to pots of water – and somehow this is considered as authentic and valid but it is unacceptable and invalid to marry two people of the same gender who are in love with each other. This is serious cognitive dissonance!!<\/p>\n
Let us all rejoice in the happiness of others and bless them. May all beings be happy and free from judgement and condemnation for their love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I hate to be the one to bring you bad news \u2013 but according to the Dharma \u015a\u0101stras a Vedic Hindu priest should not perform any ceremonies for \u015b\u016bdras. A term of great insult is to … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[138,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-area9","category-english"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 12:31:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}